


keeping promises

by alovelikeher



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: "everyone assumes we're dating anyway lets just get married", Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Best Friends, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fake Marriage, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Marriage of Convenience, Veterinary Nurse Arya, bartender gendry, gendry's that uncle who lets a six year old eat ice cream for breakfast, gets married adopts a child still insists they're Just Friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:21:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23536705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alovelikeher/pseuds/alovelikeher
Summary: When Gendry's sister dies, he promises her one thing: he'll look after her daughter, no matter what.Arya promises to help him do just that, no matter what.
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters
Comments: 122
Kudos: 259





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> and the author's obsession with fake dating aus continues 
> 
> massive thank you to jess for being such a supportive angel, as always. don't know what i'd do without you, my lovely<3
> 
> (i tried to research everything in this as best i could, but as a certified Dumb Bitch, i would just like to repeat that i did my best. a lot of the legal stuff will probably be kept vague for that reason. i highly, highly doubt any of this is at all realistic but hey i think it's cute)

He watched her as she started to slip away, slowly and quietly, and it all felt so wrong. His little sister was anything but slow and quiet, yet that was the way her life was drawing to an end, all too soon. 

It was the feeling of hopelessness, just sitting there next to her hospital bed watching her die when she had so much to live for. He was her big brother, and he was supposed to look after her, yet there was nothing he could do when the nurse told him she likely wouldn’t make it through the night.

She’d mostly been asleep and he just hoped she wasn’t in pain. She didn’t deserve any of this - nobody did. Then his name fell from her lips, barely even there, and he might not have heard it if he hadn’t been so focused on her. As if watching her die was going to stop it from happening.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he soothed her, taking her hand as gently as he could. “It’s okay, Bella. I’m here, I’m right here.”

He wasn’t sure she could even hear him, if she even knew what was going on, but it was a comfort to him at least when she seemed to come around just a little bit.

“Please don’t let them take her.”

“Nobody’s taking her anywhere.”

He knew that leaving her daughter to the same life she'd had as a kid hurt more than any kind of pain her body could put her through. He didn’t know how to make it better.

“Look after her,” Bella practically begged, and he felt his gut sink as he realised how agonising it was for her to speak. “Gendry, please. I need to know you’ll look after her. I need to know.”

“Of course I will,” He saw the look in her eye, the desperation, as if it wasn't quite enough. “Listen to me - nobody is taking her anywhere. I’ll look after her.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Bella smiled at him, and he held her hand tighter than ever as she slipped away for good.

The next few hours didn’t feel real.

It had been the two of them for so long. In reality, it had only  _ ever _ been the two of them - and now she was gone. Just like that.

They took her body away before the sun even came up and he knew he should have been prepared for it, they’d known for weeks the illness was terminal, but he wasn’t ready at all. Everything just felt numb and empty.

He headed home and tried to get some sleep, but found it was pointless. Because now the worry and the anxiety that had come from watching his sister get sicker and sicker, had turned into worry and anxiety about what the hell he was going to do.

There was the funeral, which he’d have to plan - and, somehow, pay for. There was all her stuff that was just sitting around her aparment, that she’d never use again. There was the innocent little girl who had no idea she’d never see her mother again, who  _ he’d _ just promised to look after.

He sunk into his grotty old sofa, squeezing his eyes closed and willing himself to get some sleep just so it would all go away for a few hours, before he’d have no choice but to face a much more complicated world without his sister.

A distraction was provided by a knocking at the door. He wondered for a minute if it was one of the nosy neighbours, who had somehow found out, because nobody else was going to come knocking at four o’clock in the morning. The thought didn’t inspire him to move, but the knocking started up again and he knew nobody on this street cared that much that it couldn’t wait until at least noon.

He had to force himself to get up off the sofa and begrudgingly head to the front door. As soon as he opened the door, Arya was pushing past him. A rush of relief washed over him - his first instinct was always her, and he’d almost phoned her the second he realised Bella had stopped breathing.

“Why aren’t you answering your phone?”

“Why didn’t you use your bloody key?”

“I was in a rush to get here and forgot it,” Arya huffed, panic recognisable in her grey eyes. She looked at him for a second longer than normal, her voice softening with her face. “Well?”

He didn’t answer her,  _ couldn’t _ answer her, couldn’t make the words come out. 

But he knew he didn’t need to, not with her. She hadn’t even asked about Bella specifically, but he knew that she’d know. She always did.

Her arms were around him within seconds, practically smothering him in a much needed warm embrace. For someone so small, she was scarily strong - something he had been teasing her about for as long as either of them could remember, and he couldn’t help but smile sadly for a second.

“I’m  _ so _ sorry, Gendry,” Arya said, her fingers combing the ends of his black hair. “Bella loves you so much.”

Then, he didn’t even try to stop himself from crying. He didn’t have to with her - she was his best friend, after all.

Arya didn’t leave his side once in the following few days. 

(He was  _ maybe _ starting to see how his sister’s nurses could mistake her for his girlfriend on more than one occasion.)

But Arya was a natural caregiver, she always had been. If she saw someone who needed help, even if they hadn’t asked for it, she would do everything in her power to help them. It was one of the things he loved most about her. 

He had no idea how to plan a funeral, or how to apply for guardianship of his six year old niece, or any of the rest. But he figured it out, maybe because Arya helped with pretty much all of it and made it look easy.

It was all one massive blur, for the most part, that still didn’t seem at all real. But he tried as much as he could to focus on Charlie - reminding himself that, no matter what he was feeling, he at least knew what was happening. He wasn’t sure that she completely understood where her mum had even gone, being only six years old.

As much as he just wanted to lock himself away, he couldn’t. He reminded himself over and over again that he made a promise to his sister - he would look after her baby girl if it was the last thing he ever did. 

Gendry and Bella were both in and out of foster homes for years when they were kids. He would never let the same happen to his niece, not after Bella worked so hard to give her the life she deserved.

He’d always helped Bella with her, babysitting when he could and giving her any spare change he had at the end of the month, but now was the time that he would really step up for her. Protect her baby, somehow. She would never end up in the system, that he knew.

“What are you thinking about?” 

Her voice snapped him out of his hazy train of thought, and it was only then he realised Arya had laid down next to him on the bed. All the years he’d known her, it never failed to amaze him how quietly she could sneak in and out of places. He’d always told her she’d have made an excellent criminal in another life.

He sighed, keeping his eyes on the ceiling above them. “Charlie.”

There was a moment’s silence between them - not awkward,  _ never _ awkward, not with Arya. 

“She’s going to be okay, you know,” she said softly, placing her hand over his and squeezing.

He  _ didn’t _ know. He wanted to believe her when she said that, he did, but he had no idea how.

“I promised Bella I’d look after her.”

“And you will, Robb said there’s no reason for the courts to deny you guardianship permanently so-”

“I don’t know how to raise a kid, Arya.”

She seemed slightly startled when he cut across her, but her features soon softened in understanding. “Look, I’m not saying it’ll be easy... but Charlie adores you. You’re kind, and loyal, and smart - and she’s so lucky to have you. Plus you’re so moody all the time that it might just translate pretty well into parental discipline.”

He sniggered, catching the teasing grin threatening to break out across her face. “Yeah right, I don’t even know what kids need to be disciplined  _ for _ . Might need your help on that one.”

That made her laugh properly, at least. 

“You’ll have my help on all of it, idiot,” Arya said, affectionately rolling her eyes. “I’ll be right here with you, every step of the way.” 

“You’ve done more than enough already.”

“I’m your best friend,” Arya scoffed, giving him a soft nudge to the arm. “So don’t be stupid,  _ stupid _ .”

Arya had pretty much immediately enlisted Robb - he specialised as a divorce lawyer, so was used to approaching custody of a child in a slightly different way but he was still able to help. Even if most of what he said just sounded like legal jargon to Gendry (he owned a bar, after all, not a court), it was still reassuring that he had a professional on his side.

Yet another thing he had to thank Arya for, he guessed - Robb’s unexpected insistence on helping him out as a favour, completely pro bono, may as well have come directly from Arya’s mouth. 

Still, he was of course grateful for any help he could get. At the end of the day, he just wanted to make sure his niece was okay and looked after. According to Robb, as long as he could prove he was stable and able to care for Charlie, he shouldn’t have a problem. Child services always preferred to keep a child with family where possible, and it wasn’t as if there was any other family. He was the only family member she had - her useless dipshit of a father’s side of things certainly didn’t count - so he knew the best place for her was with him. Even if that was completely terrifying to think about.

A week later, the funeral came and went. He’d hoped it would bring him some sort of closure, saying a final goodbye to his sister. It hadn’t, and now everything felt like the world was going to move on without him.

It hadn't been a massive funeral - Bella had no family apart from Gendry and Charlie. Thankfully, she had always been the life and soul of the party who had no trouble making friends; he was glad they turned out for her, at least.

Davos and Marya had been there too. They'd fostered both of them when Gendry was seventeen, Bella a year younger, after a string of temporary homes, and they'd stayed with the Seaworths until they were adults. They'd been treated as family ever since.

Davos and Marya had retired to Storm's End a few years back, and had given Gendry ownership of their bar - he had a 90% ownership of the business, with 10% of the shares still going to Davos, and also fully owned the upstairs apartment. Gendry saw that as a more than fair deal considering he hadn't paid a penny for any of it.

They'd flown back from Storm's End just for the funeral, even offered to stick around for a few weeks to help Gendry out, but he insisted they'd done enough and gently urged them to get back to their retirement by the sea.

(Arya had also forced almost every one of the Starks - the ones that still lived within the hour’s drive of Winterfell, which was everyone but Jon and Sansa - into attendance for the service, so that was a few more seats filled. Quietly, he was grateful.)

He was still staying at Bella’s apartment, trying to find a way he could afford to pay the rent. The short answer was that he couldn’t.

The bills in front of him on the coffee table made him nauseous. Business was good enough at the bar - he made enough money to keep himself afloat comfortably, which was more than he could have dreamt of growing up. But funeral expenses, an extra apartment to rent and a child to provide for? Plus being able to give Davos his share. Business wasn’t that good.

He’d have to give up his apartment, that was the only solution. It would take away the convenience factor, sure, but he couldn’t raise a six year old in a studio apartment above a bar that was open until the early hours of the morning most nights anyway. He didn’t know how he was going to balance working late nights and taking care of Charlie by himself, but he’d just have to figure that one out as he went along.

Bella’s two-bed (that was being gracious, considering it was more like one bedroom with a wall down the middle) wasn’t in a great part of town, he’d never been happy about them living there, but none of them could afford to do anything to change it. Even when he’d attempted to, Bella had shot him down, and he knew better than to push her into accepting help she didn’t want.

Still, none of that mattered now. Now, he’d been plunged back into the financial uncertainty he thought he'd seen the back of. Something had to give.

He sighed, throwing the piece of paper onto the pile with the rest. A glance at his phone alerted him to the fact it was almost three in the morning, but it had been a week of sleepless nights that showed no sign of stopping, so he couldn’t find the energy to be surprised or concerned.

Picking the papers up off the coffee table, he folded them neatly and tucked them away in one of the kitchen cupboards. The last thing he needed was Charlie seeing them - even if he knew she wouldn’t have understood what any of them meant anyway. 

There was a chance that the mixture of sleep deprivation, grief, and sudden parental responsibility made him slightly irrational.

“Uncle Gendry?”

“Yeah?”

“When is Mummy coming home?”

His entire body froze. 

“Charls, we talked about this, remember?” He said softly, climbing down off the sofa to sit next her on the floor. He didn’t know why she preferred to throw all the pillows on the floor and then sit on them, but he let her do her thing. He let out a sigh, trying to remember what all those charity websites said about dealing with this conversation - again. “Where Mummy’s gone - once you’re there, you can’t come back home.”

She nodded, bright blue eyes casting back over to the TV for a second, as a cheery kids’ channel advert distracted her. He wondered for a moment if she’d just forgotten where her Mum was - she did that quite a lot, but her social worker insisted the best thing he could do was be honest and keep repeating that Bella  _ couldn’t _ come back until she understood.

It was quiet for a few minutes - and even he found himself distracted by the silly cartoons playing on the TV - before she suddenly spoke again.

“When can I go and see Mummy?”

Maybe it was a good thing she didn’t fully understand the finality of death yet, he thought. Maybe it was a good thing she still had that innocence in her eyes, the hope in her voice. Maybe confusion was better than grief, for the time being. He knew from experience that she had plenty of time ahead of her for grief.

“One day,” He eventually managed to say, gulping down the lump in his throat.

“Soon?” The way her little face lit up and her head tilted to the side, as if she’d casually asked when she could go to the park, definitely confirmed that confusion was better.

“No, not soon,” He sighed. “Mummy wants you to stay here for a really, really long time first. But one day, when you’re  _ really _ old, then you’ll be able to go and see her.”

She simply nodded again. 

“Does that make sense, Charls?”

Another nod. “Can I have ice cream?”

He laughed - he never knew when she was going to spring those questions on him, but they never lasted very long at a time. “Yeah, course you can. Chocolate or strawberry?”

“Chocolate please!” She grinned, before quickly being drawn back to the TV again. 

He smiled at her as he pushed himself up from the pile of pillows on the floor, heading to the fridge freezer. 

She was going to be okay, he told himself. He’d make sure of it, one way or another.

Finally, he'd managed to figure out what to do about the new-found financial problems. He was on his way back from a meeting with an estate agent, who advised him on the best way to rent out his flat. It may take a while to find a tenant due to the location above the bar, but the flip side of that was that it was in the centre of town and would probably be a good fit for young couples or professionals who weren't bothered about the noise. 

He'd asked Arya if she was able to babysit for him for a few hours, and she'd thankfully agreed. When he returned to the flat, he could hear her voice as soon as he opened the front door.

“You said he had a good chance.”

“He does,” Robb’s voice could suddenly be heard, the rustling a tell-tale sign of Arya’s crappy speaker.

She could more than easily afford to buy a brand new, top of the range phone every time Apple released a new model and yet she insisted it was unnecessary. 

“So, what’s your point then?” She asked, and it almost made him laugh how quickly she grew agitated with her brother.

“I just don’t think he realises what he’s taking on here.”

“He’s taking on his niece, Robb.” Arya hissed, crossing her arms across her chest. 

Oh. Yeah.  _ Right _ .

They were talking about him.

Maybe he should have seen that one coming.

He heard Robb sigh on the line, he could tell from the uncomfortable crackling noise - and,  _ Gods _ , she needed a new phone. “Yes, and that’s amazing of him. But can he give her a stable upbringing? Has he got the means to do it? Raising a child isn’t exactly cheap.”

Gendry had no issue with Robb, he really didn’t. He was pleasant enough most of the time, and he could hardly fault the guy for the free legal advice (even if it was  _ clearly _ to get Arya off his back). But, he certainly knew how to sound like the patronising rich boy stereotype he was always destined to be.

“Why shouldn’t he, Robb? Dad did  _ exactly _ the same with Jon when Aunt Lyanna died.”

“Dad had a wife to help him care for Jon, a family home to raise him in, children of a similar age for him to grow up with. Gendry doesn’t have  _ one  _ of those things.”

It was almost comical to him, the things that rich people thought mattered to a kid. He and Bella had grown up with a single mother in and out of shelters, followed by foster carers and group homes. They hadn't had the faintest idea they were missing out on anything - no idea their lives were out of the ordinary, until they found a loving home in Davos and Marya. Though, their childhoods weren't uncommon in Westeros. But rich people still managed to convince themselves their way was the only way.

“You think he needs those things?”

Arya was different. She was the only one who ever was different for him. 

“I don’t - but the courts might.”

He decided he’d heard enough and backed up as quietly as he could (not as easy as it sounded for someone who was over six foot tall and had two left feet), hoping Arya hadn’t heard him come in. She hadn’t seemed to, which was unusual for her considering she had eyes on the back of her head most of the time, but he didn’t overthink it.

Maybe Robb was right. He didn’t have any of those things - and, sure, he hadn’t grown up with those things either but he couldn’t argue that maybe life would have been a hell of lot easier for them all if they had. If his shitty excuse of a sperm donor had bothered to stick around, if his mother had the support, if they’d had the basic privilege of a roof over their heads. 

If they’d had money, they wouldn’t have ended up in homeless shelters and foster homes. They would have been safer and maybe they’d have been better off now. Maybe Bella wouldn’t have been a single mum barely out of her teens, maybe she’d been able to get ahead in life and maybe she wouldn’t have had to life on the wrong side of town just to put a roof over her baby’s head.

But none of that was true. And, deep down, it didn’t matter because he hadn’t promised his sister that her daughter would go live with someone rich. He’d promised to look after her himself.

No one, not Robb Stark or the courts or the shitty system, would make a liar of him. He didn’t just abandon innocent kids, let them be thrown to the lions because he couldn’t be bothered to take responsibility and keep his promises.

He wasn’t his father.

It wasn’t long before he realised he’d promised Arya he'd be home by now and she’d probably be worried, realised he couldn’t expect her to look after his niece for any longer than she’d offered to.

When he returned to the apartment, Arya was standing in the kitchen, back to him as she peered into the open fridge.

“I don’t know how your rich girl fridges work, but staring into that doesn’t make anything new appear,” His voice suddenly boomed into the room. “Believe me, I’ve tried enough times.”

Arya quickly spun round, glaring at him.

“You scared me,  _ idiot _ .”

She really hadn’t heard him come in again? Seriously, what was up with her?

He chuckled as he moved to sit as he threw his jacket down on the sofa, before sitting down on the arm. “Funny how you’re the one who always says I walk into a room like an… what is it? An elephant with bells on.”

“An elephant with bells on playing the  _ trombone _ ,” she quickly corrected him, making a show of giving up and closing the fridge door. “And don’t try to be funny, it doesn’t suit you.”

“Apologies, m’lady,” He smirked, raising his hands in mock defeat. He considered his next question for a second, wondering if she’d tell him the truth, wondering if he even wanted her to. “What’s got you so distracted?”

Nothing on her face gave her away, but then it rarely did. “Nothing, I was just thinking about what I could cook for Charlie. You know, because she can’t  _ actually _ live on ice cream.”

“Has she been okay for you?”

“Yeah, of course, she’s a good kid,” Arya nodded, a smile spreading across her face as she walked from the kitchen to join him on the sofa. “Did you get everything sorted at the bar?”

“Uh, yeah,” he grumbled. “Yeah, sorted. Is Charls in her room?”

“Yeah, she’s just got in there. I brought her my old tablet for her to have, I hope that’s okay.”

“Yeah, of course,” Gendry - very inelegantly - slid off the arm of the sofa and onto the actual seat. 

“Okay, cool,” she said, sitting next to him on the sofa. “She was using one of the kids’ coloring apps when she went to her room. I logged in my netflix account for her as well - figured it’ll delay the cartoons from slowly driving  _ you _ nuts.” 

“Gods, no wonder she likes you so much,” he smirked.

“What can I say, I’m a natural,” she teased, winking and flipping her hair over her shoulder.

“You  _ are _ a natural, you know. You’re much better at this than I am,” he said. “And not just because of the tablet thing.”

She gave him a shove as she scooted over closer to him. “Stop it, Gendry, you’re doing an amazing job with her.”

“Doesn’t feel like it,” he grunted, rubbing a hand across his face. It definitely didn’t feel like it after what he had heard. But he couldn’t tell her he’d overheard her private conversation and stormed off like a brat,  _ so _ .

“Well, you are. So shut up and stop making me give you compliments, stupid.”

He grinned. “Can’t help it, can you?”

That earned him another shove to the arm. 

They both laughed for a second, before he sucked in a breath. “So, uh, Charlie’s social worker rang earlier - it wasn’t the same woman as before, but she said she’s coming over this afternoon.” 

She frowned, concern falling over her features in an instant. “Really? What for?”

“I don’t know,” He answered honestly, shrugging. “She just said it was important on the phone. She should be here soon, actually.”

“Want me to stick around?”

“You’ve been here all day, Arry, you don’t have to do that.”

“I don’t mind, I don’t have anywhere to be,” she shook her head adamantly. “Besides, I’ve got to make sure you don’t act like a grumpy arsehole in front of the social worker, haven’t I?”

He laughed - she wasn’t wrong. But still, he played along, “Nobody else thinks I’m grumpy, you know.”

“Gendry,  _ everyone _ thinks you’re grumpy. Me included,” she rolled her eyes in affection. “Charlie might be the only one who doesn’t and that’s only because she’s six and you give her ice cream whenever she asks for it.”

He raised his hand to his chest, clutching at his shirt. “ _Excuse_ _me_ if I’m still in favourite uncle mode.”

“Favourite uncle? You’re her only uncle.”

“See? No competition, is there? Unlike your lot, that Christmas after the twins’ were born was what cemented my appreciation for small, barely existent families like mine.”

She audibly gasped then. “Okay, first of all - I’m the twins’ favourite member of their entire family,  _ full stop _ . And I like having a big family, there’s always someone there.”

“You like  _ people _ , Arya, that’s the difference,” he scoffed, tilting his head to the side as he resisted the urge to laugh at her.

That seemed to stump her, yet he could still almost see her scouring her brain for comebacks. “That’s... well, that’s fair, actually. You loved Christmas with the Starks, anyway.”

It was on the tip of his tongue - I loved Christmas with  _ you _ . As usual, he bit his tongue.

“Your Mum only invited me because you talked her into it and let her think we were dating behind her back.  _ Again _ ,” he frowned at her. “Being silently interrogated over the potatoes isn’t my idea of fun, Arya.”

“Oh, shut up. She invited you because I told her Bella was going to her boyfriend’s and you’d be at yours on your own, in your pants, eating microwave lasagne and drinking half of your stock.”

Half an hour later, there was a knock at the door. Knowing it was the new social worker, Gendry did his best to appear polite and cheerful as he answered it. In front of him was a fairly tall woman, probably in her late thirties, with long red hair and green eyes. She was wearing a black pencil skirt, with a smart purple blouse and a black blazer.

“My name’s Elizabeth, I’ll be Charlotte’s new social worker,” she said as she stepped into the apartment, Gendry closing the door behind her. “You must be Gendry Waters?” 

“Yeah, that’s me,” he stood awkwardly, trying his best to hold eye contact, before he felt a hand on his arm. He turned to Arya, letting out a breath he didn’t realise he’d been holding in, before turning back to the social worker. “And, uh, this is Arya.”

“Lovely to meet you both. I assume Charlotte is here?”

“Yeah, she’s, uh - she’s just through here,” he pointed towards the living area. “Charls?”

As they stepped into the cramped living space, Charlie popped up from in front of the sofa. 

“Charls, this is Elizabeth. She’s come to talk to you, say hello.”

“Hello."

Elizabeth spent about twenty minutes just watching Charlie play, listening to her show off her brand new tablet, talking to her quietly as she did so. At one point, she asked Gendry and Arya if she could have a few minutes to talk with Charlie alone. 

“What do you think she’s asking her?” Gendry asked, pacing back and forth the tiny gap between the bed and the wall.

“Just probably asking her how she’s feeling,” Arya shrugged, eyes following his movements. “Please keep still before you knock something over.”

“She’s not going into the system,” He couldn’t help but grind his teeth. “It’s not -- it’s  _ not _ happening.”

“She’s not going anywhere. It’s going to be fine.”

“How do you know?” He scoffed.

“Because I know.”

Gendry stopped his pacing, meeting the challenge in her eyes for all of two seconds. He moved to sit next to her on the bed then, elbows resting on his knees as he pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“I heard you earlier,” he mumbled under his breath, before looking over at her. Her face would still never give anything away, but he knew she already knew what he meant. “On the phone. With Robb.”

“Wh- how?” She frowned, shaking her head. When he simply shrugged, she let out a sigh. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

“He’s a  _ fuckin _ ’ family lawyer, Arry. I think he does, even if it’s annoying as hell to admit it.”

“He’s a  _ divorce _ lawyer,” Arya clarified. “He knows how to make sure his clients get custody over the other parent in a divorce. He even said himself that this is a totally different situation than what he does every day.”

“What if he’s right anyway?” He questioned. “What if she does need all those things he said and I can’t give them to her? I don’t know the first thing about raising a kid by myself.”

She softly raised her hand to his face, forcing him to look at her properly, her thumb stroking his cheek. “You’re not by yourself.”

There was a knock on the half-closed bedroom door, and he quickly snapped out of whatever  _ that _ just was, as he jumped to open it fully.

“We’re all finished in here,” Elizabeth said with a gentle smile, before turning to Arya. “If you’d like to come back through.”

The three of them headed back to the sofa, where Charlie was still sitting on the floor, Arya’s old tablet firmly in hand.

“So, uh, is that it for today?” Gendry asked Elizabeth, keeping his voice down as Arya headed over to Charlie.

“There are a couple of things I’d like to discuss with you,” Elizabeth whispered, just loud enough for Gendry and Arya to both catch it. “In private, if possible.”

He didn’t have to say a word before Arya was helping him out.

“Uh, Charlie, why don’t we go and put a movie on your tablet, hm?” Arya immediately suggested with more false enthusiasm than he thought was possible, extending her hand to Charlie, who quickly nodded and took her hand.

Once Arya closed Charlie’s bedroom door behind them, Elizabeth took the opportunity to speak up again. “Charlotte seems like a very content child.”

“Yeah, she is,” he replied defensively, taking the opportunity to sit on the make-shift plastic chair they’d shoved opposite the sofa as Elizabeth took a seat on the sofa. 

He watched her as she pulled her binder out of her bag, placing it on her lap. 

“I can tell,” she nodded, and - against his better judgement - he had to admit that she seemed genuine enough to Gendry. “So, what I wanted to talk to you about... Charlotte’s paternal grandparents have been in touch.”

He just about resisted the urge to laugh in her face. Bella never got anything from that arrogant twat of an ex or his family, yet now her body was barely cold and they were after her kid. Of course.

“Well that’s hilarious because they’ve never been in touch before,” he crossed his arms across his chest, growing more agitated by the second. “How do they even know about -- about Bella?”

“Charlotte’s father is named on her birth certificate, he was contacted as soon as Charlotte’s case was brought to us,” Elizabeth explained. “From what my colleague has noted, he was informed of your sister’s passing but had very little interest in reinitiating contact with Charlotte and was keen for her to remain here with you, at the time."

Prick. 

Would have been nice if someone had informed him of that, but whatever.

“So what have his parents got to do with any of that?”

“All I know is that they expressed their interest in raising Charlotte and were advised they'd have to go through the courts if they objected to her current guardianship order," Elizabeth explained. "I believe they’re now in the process of filing for guardianship of Charlotte themselves, their son won’t be involved in Charlotte’s upbringing at all.”

“Wait - they'd have to go through the court? So this will have to go to  _ court _ ? If it’s me or them?”

He wasn’t exactly an optimist at the best of times but - fuck.

“It’s likely that Charlotte’s case would be handed over to the courts under those circumstances, yes. In which case it would be up to the court to decide what is in Charlotte’s best interests.”

“Charlie doesn’t know them - I don’t think she’s ever even  _ met _ them, you can’t stand there and tell me you would let her go and live with complete fucking strangers who haven’t given a shit about her for the last six years.”

“Obviously, we want to cause as little distress to Charlotte as possible. But if they do apply for guardianship, then we will legally have to consider them as a permanent option.”

“She doesn’t know them.”

“I understand this is frustrating, but please try not to worry - I assure you we all want what’s best for Charlotte,” Elizabeth said. “Now, I just need to ask you a few questions and I’ll be on my way.”

“Yeah, sure,” he grunted. She’d already given him the worst case scenario, what harm would a few questions do?

“Have you come to any further conclusions about your living arrangements? I understand from your notes that you’ve been living here with Charlotte since your sister’s passing?”

Gendry sighed, running a hand over his face. “Uh, yeah, I have an apartment of my own above my bar in town but I’ll be renting that out.”

“You work late nights at the bar, I assume? Who is with Charlotte then?”

“I’ve tried not to work past nine since Bella…” he sucked in a breath, letting his sentence trail off unfinished. “But, Arya watches her for me whenever she can.”

“And she’s supportive of you caring for Charlotte full-time?”

Odd question, he thought, but sure. He guessed it was important that he had supportive friends to help.

“Uh --  _ Arya _ ?” He questions, raising his eyebrows. “Yeah, she’s been fantastic. But she’s always fantastic, so.”

“You’re a lucky man to have such an understanding girlfriend.”

Oh.  _ Oh _ , okay. That made more sense to him than the supportive friend thing.

Hardly the first time he’d had to clear that one up anyway.

“Oh, she - Arya's not my girlfriend,” he laughed. 

The surprise across her face wasn’t a first for him either. “She’s not? Oh, I apologise. That’s my mistake, I just assumed...”

Suddenly, Arya was by side. How long had she been listening?

“I’m not his girlfriend, I’m his fiancee,” Arya said brightly with a grin, as she slid onto his lap and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

“Right,” he said with a nod.

Right. 

_ Wait _ . No.  _ Not _ right.

She’s his --- she’s his  _ what _ ?

What.

“Oh, I didn’t realise you two were engaged. Is this new?”

“No, we got engaged a few months ago,” Arya said, frowning in confusion and looking her up and down. “It’s not in your binder?"

As Elizabeth started flipping through the seemingly endless sheets of paper, Arya gave him a reassuring smile.

Weirdly, it did make him feel reassured. It was on top of the feeling of shock, confusion and stress but… it was reassuring somewhere. 

“No, nothing in here,” Elizabeth said. He caught Elizabeth’s eyes slipping to Arya’s ring finger then, and clearly Arya caught it too.

“I take my ring off for work - I’m a veterinary nurse - but I was in a rush to get over here for Charlie, so forgot to slip it back on like I usually do. It’s gorgeous though.”

She then proceeded to laugh, in what may have been the  _ weirdest _ way he’d ever heard her laugh - and he’d heard her laughing whilst high. What was she even saying? What was happening?

“Well congratulations. The two of you will be raising Charlotte together then?”

“That’s right,” Arya said, squeezing his shoulders that bit tighter as she leaned her head on his arm. “Oh sorry, that reminds me, babe-”

_ Babe _ ? Did Arya just use the word babe? Did she just call  _ him _ babe?

“-I forgot to tell you earlier that my Dad called about the house. He’s going to sort out all the legal stuff and we’ll be able to move in pretty much straight after the wedding.”

“Are you buying a home together?” 

He’d actually forgotten for a second that Elizabeth was still there, a bit caught up in suddenly becoming a soon to be husband and homeowner. Apparently.

It was then that he finally realised what Arya was trying to do. It was what Robb had said he was missing - a marriage, a family home, other kids. He had none of those things two minutes ago and now suddenly he had two out of three - and, it was fair to assume, the two that Charlotte’s wannabe grandparents had going for them.

It certainly didn’t feel like a bad idea. It didn’t feel like a good idea either, but maybe that was the shock talking.

“We’re renting it off my father,” Arya said. “He owns a lot of property across the country, and we were going to save up a bit after the wedding to buy this one off him completely but with the change in circumstances, we’ll be moving in with Charlie as soon as possible.”

Elizabeth quickly scribbled something else down in her binder full of paperwork. So, he took the chance to turn to Arya again - his blue eyes wide, mouth pressed together in a straight line, hoping she’d get the ‘ _ what the fuck _ ’ that he was trying to silently ask her.

She seemed to get it, the way she narrowed her eyes and subtly shook her head. That usually meant ‘ _ shut up until I can explain _ ’ in Arya talk.

“And when is the wedding?” Elizabeth suddenly asked, drawing both their attention back to her before she could look up from her binder.

The following words came out of Arya’s mouth so casually he wasn’t sure he’d even heard them properly.

“Next month. The wedding’s next month.”

Not long after that, Arya was showing Elizabeth out of the apartment and it was just the two of them - save for Charlie, who was still on that apparent Gods-send of a tablet.

Gendry shifted over the sofa, finding himself at a total loss for words.

“Okay,” Arya breathed as she walked back over to the sofa, tucking one leg beneath her as she sat down next to him. “So…”

“Please,  _ please _ , explain to me what just happened.”

“I heard what she said, about Charlie’s grandparents.”

Apparently, they both needed to stop listening at doors. 

“Right.”

“So, think about it... ‘ _ what if Robb’s right _ ’ - that’s what you asked me earlier,” she said slowly. “Well, what if he is? And what if you don’t have those things but suddenly there’s an option that does?”

“Yeah, I kinda worked that bit out for myself,” he said. “But you’ve just told a social worker we’re engaged and she’s going to find out everything you just said was a complete lie when we’re  _ not married _ and still living here in a month.”

“Alright -- I jumped the gun a  _ tiny _ bit with the month thing, but you don’t know how long we’ve got to make this work.” 

He put his face in his hands, trying to unscramble his brain enough to think this over. Usually, he’d trust Arya with his life. Usually, he’d be on board for taking an authoritative figure for a ride but this was different. He had to think about his niece - about his sister, about what he’d promised her. 

He promised Bella that he’d look after her little girl - she’d never get palmed off to stranger after stranger like they’d been as kids. This felt like too big of a risk.

Arya pulled his hands away from his face, holding them down on his lap. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to. He’d have never got through Bella’s death without her - she was his best friend, he loved her more than anything, he trusted her more than anything.

“You honestly think this is a good idea?” He asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Do you have a better one?”

“No.”

“Didn’t think so,” she smiled - that wicked, clever, beautiful smile that could get him to do so many things that he wouldn’t dream of doing for anyone else. “I think you made a promise to your sister and I think I’m going to help you keep that promise, no matter what it takes.”

“Guess we’re getting married then.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i spent two hours trying to get round the british 28-days-notice-before-wedding rule just for a random clip of parks and rec to inform me you can get married there 10 seconds after getting a licence and don’t even legally need a witness some places god bless the u s of a. 
> 
> so yeah, marriage in this universe is some weird combination of american laws and westerosi traditions idk just go with it <3

“We could just go to the courthouse. We’ve been secretly dating for a few months and decided on a whim to get married - it’s believable.”

“Not really, no.”

“Vegas then.”

“No.”

“Gendry!”

He probably deserved the pillow that was thrown directly at his head from the other side of the sofa then - but he could hardly see how it was _his_ fault that there was no believable way to marry someone you weren’t even dating.

So, yeah. Turned out, planning a fake wedding to your best friend on a month’s notice wasn’t the easiest thing to do.

What a surprise, said nobody ever.

“I’m sorry, alright?” He huffed, grabbing hold of the pillow and throwing it back at her. “This is just ridiculous.”

Arya tucked the pillow behind her head, shifting to lay down on the sofa and throwing her legs over his lap.”Well we have to think of something. It’s too late now.”

“It’s not too late. I wouldn’t blame you, if you want to back out now befo-”

“Back out? When have I _ever_ backed out of anything?” She asked, her eyebrows shooting upwards, as if she were challenging him to continue insulting her. 

“This isn’t a fucking boxing match, Arry,” he argued. “This is _marriage_. An actual, legal marriage. If we go through with this, we’d be husband and wife.”

He hadn’t actually said those last words out loud before and, as far as he knew, neither had she. Considering the look on her face - grey eyes slightly widened, pink lips slightly parted - neither had she. 

_Husband and wife_.

She’d be his wife. He’d be her husband.

Real or otherwise, they’d have to stick to the story for a significant amount of time in order to pull it off.

Arya pushed herself up onto her elbows, tilting her head to the side. “I know. Why do you think I’d back out of that?”

“I- I…” He accidentally held his breath for a few seconds. “It’s just a big commitment, that's all.”

“Yeah, if you’re planning on being in it for the long haul,” Arya rolled her eyes. “We just have to say a few words in front of a registrar, live together for a few months, and then sign some divorce papers. _Easy_.”

“You say that as if nobody’s going to find out and try to stop you.”

He'd known her long enough to know when something he'd said immediately put a bad idea in her head. It had happened enough over the years for him to grow familiar with that look on her face.

She pushed herself up off her elbows so she sat upright (didn’t bother to remove her legs from his though, not that he was complaining) and grinned at him. “They don’t have to. Not all of it, at least. That’s how - that’s how we do the wedding, we’ve been worrying about making it believable and what for?”

“Uh - for the social worker?”

“She’s hardly going to ask for an invite, is she? We just do the legal bit for real obviously, so there’s no chance of them catching us in a lie, and we live together just in case someone swings by unannounced. That’s all we need to do.”

“So, we - we pretend to get married but... in secret?”

“I mean we’ll tell people _after_ the wedding. We just don’t tell them we’re doing it until it’s already done,” Arya explained enthusiastically. “That way nobody can say anything. We just go and do it.”

Gendry paused for a second, trying to make sense of it all. Nobody had been more shocked about this engagement than him, and he didn’t really care what anyone thought about it, but he thought it had better be believable. If they were doing this in case they needed to portray a happy marriage to an actual judge in an actual courtroom, they’d better make it seem like a happy marriage. Any doubts about how genuine it was could make it all completely pointless.

“What about your family?”

“What _about_ my family?”

He tried to imagine her telling her family that she had done something completely impulsive and reckless, deliberately choosing to not inform them of a massive event in her life, where tradition would have a young woman’s parents fairly involved --

\-- Yeah, maybe it could work.

Still, he couldn’t help but push. “They think we’re just friends. You think they’ll be okay with you just casually telling them we’re _married_?”

Arya shrugged. “It’ll be fine. We’ll totally get away with a story about a cheap shotgun wedding.”

“You just have way too many brothers capable of throttling me to be talking about shotguns.”

“Okay, I am capable of throttling you just as much as my brothers are. Probably more so, actually," she reached over, ruffling his black hair. "So, don't you worry your pretty little head about that one.” 

* * *

Knowing that Ned Stark was a wealthy man was one thing. Knowing he owned a lot of property was _another_ thing.

But actually moving into one of those properties? Just a little bit crazy.

He wasn’t really sure what he had expected when Arya mentioned the house Ned had personally suggested. She’d told him that the place had looked nice in the photos her father showed her and that it was in walking distance of Charlie’s school, but that was it. 

She hadn’t even told him the price, but he hadn't thought that Ned would just offer up a house that was actually worth all that much.

Apparently, he was wrong about that. Very wrong, in fact.

Arya had suggested bringing Charlie with them to view the house, which sounded like a good idea at the time, but now he was second guessing himself. He wished he’d seen the place first, very alone, because… _damn_. 

“You’re sure this is it?” He tried to hide the shock on his face as he turned to Arya, watching her open the car door for Charlie to climb out (and immediately run straight past him to the house).

Arya nodded in response, moving to follow Charlie as he stared up at the house, and she pointed at the marble plaque next to the front door. “Yeah, number 82. Definitely it.”

“Right, great, except I can’t afford this.”

“Not on your own you can’t, no - but _we_ can,” she said, moving to unlock the front door. He didn’t bother to question her, just following her into their soon-to-be home. 

He followed her through to the cream-coloured kitchen, which he was fairly sure was close to the same size as his entire flat. 

Despite the house being massive, the interior was actually quite modest - it felt the way he’d always imagined a proper family home would feel.

It was then he realised how that, for a while now, that image in his head of a family and a home always involved Arya.

That’s all it was, actually. Arya with her hair tied back in a messy braid, stood there in her green vet nurse scrubs, still covered in dog hair from her shift. Arya, laughing to herself as she watched Charlie go right on her tippy-toes to reach the door handle to the garden, whilst she tried to find the right key ( _Gods_ , this place needed multiple keys).

Arya making all of this happen for them, for no reason other than just because that’s who she was. 

“Well, she seems to approve,” Arya said, as they both watched Charlie run out to the garden.

“Yeah, she would,” he laughed, looking around the empty kitchen. 

Arya laughed with him at first, but her face soon fell as she turned to look at him. She could always tell what he was thinking - it was helpful at the best of times, annoying at the worst. He wasn’t sure which one applied then. “ _You_ don’t approve?”

He looked her in the eye and the disappointment he was met with instantly made him feel awful. “It’s not that I don’t --- I _do_ approve, it’s just. It’s a lot.”

“A lot?”

“I mean - it’s got a garden _and_ a driveway. It’s got both of those things, Arry. _Both_ ,” he sighed, not able to stop his eyes drifting around the kitchen again. He raised his arm, pointing wildly at the kitchen island. “Not to mention a kitchen with one of these random big tables in the middle of the room that rich people on TV have for some reason,” he paused as she just continued to stare at him. “It’s not even attached to any other house!”

“So, your problem here is that it’s a detached house with a kitchen, a garden and a driveway?” She raised her eyebrows, and he could tell she thought he was being ridiculous but he couldn’t stop himself.

“My problem is that I’m not a charity.”

She didn’t say anything, but from the way she pressed her lips together and furrowed her eyebrows, he knew it was coming. Then, she scoffed loudly and crossed her arms across her chest. “You’re being ridiculous and I feel like you know that.”

“Am I?”

“You’re not a charity - none of this is charity,” Arya rolled her eyes, uncrossing her arms as she moved to stand in front of him. She reached for his shoulders, resting her hands there. “We’re renting a nice house that we can honestly afford. What part of that sounds like charity to you?”

He looked down - barely managing half a second before she was pushing his chin back up. “No, none if it, I s'pose.”

She smiled then, taking her hand from his chin and moving it back to his shoulder. “You deserve this, okay? Nobody’s just giving it to you, you deserve to live here, you deserve all of it.”

“I don’t deserve you,” he whispered, his voice suddenly low. She looked up through her eyelashes, her lips parted as if she was going to say something, but she didn’t. 

He didn’t know what it was that changed in that split second, as soon as those words left his mouth, but something seemed to. Maybe it was how close together they were standing, or how intimate all of this felt, but in that moment - all he could think about was kissing her.

They’d kissed before, it wouldn’t be the first time. It would be the first time _sober_ , or not as part of a dare, or an in-the-moment comfort thing but... it wouldn’t be the first time. Just another in the moment thing -

That moment was quickly interrupted as Charlie’s voice called from the garden. “Arya!”

It was as if an alarm suddenly went off in their heads as they both stepped away (though it was more like a dive on his part) from each other at the interruption, Arya patting down her top and Gendry rubbing the back of his neck as if it was on fire.

“Arya!” 

He laughed, clearing his throat, before pointing to the garden door. “Does she not know I’m still here or does she just not care?”

“Come on, are we really surprised that my awesome ability to be the favourite aunt extends to in-laws, too?” She teased, sticking her tongue out at him as she spun around. “You’ll get used to it, I promise.”

Just like that, they were back to normal. Best friends. Arya and Gendry. Best friends. As if no moment ever happened.

Wasn’t the first time for that either.

He followed her out of the door to the garden, to see that Charlie was sitting on the grass, next to a wooden hutch. 

“Arya, what’s this?” She asked, as she saw them approaching. “Is it for animals?”

He wasn’t sure whether to be pleased her call for Arya was for animal-related reasons or insulted that his six year old niece just assumed he wouldn’t know the answer. 

“Yeah, it’s a rabbit hutch,” Arya grinned as she knelt down on the grass next to the little girl. “I guess the family who used to live here had a pet rabbit.”

He didn’t think that gasps could be deafening, but the way Charlie gasped came pretty close. “Can we get a pet rabbit?!”

“Absolutely not,” Gendry said.

Charlie’s face fell into a pout. “Why not? I’ll take care of it, I promise. Oh, please?”

“Still no.”

He turned then to head back into the house, but he didn’t miss the laughter behind him or the words that came before it, “We’ll work on it, Charls.”

* * *

The bar was quiet that evening (it was a Wednesday, afterall) so he locked up early and was home by just gone 11pm.

When he got home, he assumed Arya was already in bed. He decided to make himself something to eat, having skipped dinner earlier on. 

“Hey, I thought I heard you come in.”

He looked up to see Arya stood in the doorway of the bedroom. She was wearing one of his old t-shirts that went just past her knees and patting down her damp hair with a towel.

She always wore his clothes. This wasn’t any different, he told himself. It was just him getting in his own head after yesterday.

But, fuck, did she look beautiful.

“You okay? How are you home early?”

Her question snapped him out of his weird thoughts, drawing him back to the reality where she was walking towards him, amusement written all over her face.

“No, yeah, I’m fine -- everything’s fine. Bar was just quiet, that’s all. Wednesday night and all”

“Oh, okay,” she smiled. “What are you cooking?”

“Grilled cheese,” was his answer, holding up the packet of cheddar as he pulled it out of the fridge. “Want one?”

She pulled a plastic stool to the kitchen counter, sliding onto it with ease. “Please.”

He set about making the sandwiches, buttering the bread and adding the cheese. “Did you get Charlie to bed okay?” 

Watching him pop the sandwich over the grill, she nodded in response. “Yeah, course.”

He moved away from the grill, leaning on the counter where she was sitting on the opposite side. “What do you think we should tell her?” 

Arya frowned, eyebrows furrowing together in confusion.“What - about us?”

He simply nodded. “Yeah.”

“I think she understands that we’re best friends who are going to live together to look after her,” Arya said, nodding slowly through her words. “I don’t think we have to tell her anything differently. Do you?”

“No, you’re right.”

She smiled, eyeing him suspiciously for a second before laughing it off. “Alright.”

They didn’t say much else, the sandwiches ready a few minutes later. They sat in a comfortable silence as they ate, and once they were done, they both decided to head to bed.

That was until yesterday afternoon suddenly came into his head - that image of her in front of him in that kitchen, so close he could feel her breathing, and how badly he wanted to kiss her.

It was like he’d been struck with lightning, how quickly he stopped in his tracks.

“I don’t mind sleeping out here, you know,” he said quickly, pointing over his shoulder at the sofa. 

She turned and looked confused at first, but soon broke out into laughter. “Why would you do that?”

He could hardly tell her the real reason, considering she didn’t seem affected by it at all. The last thing he wanted was to make her uncomfortable. 

“It’s just --- you know, if you want some space,” he said, thinking on his feet as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. 

“Gendry, do _you_ want some space?” Her eyebrow quirked with the question, suspicion clouding her grey eyes.

“No!” he replied, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. “I mean -- no, not if you don’t.”

“Okay,” she drew the word out, studying him for a second longer. “Do you want to stop being stupid now then or do you need a minute to reactivate your braincells?”

“I’m good,” he said, smacking his lips together before following her into the bedroom. 

He watched her as she headed for the bed, pulling back the covers and diving onto the mattress with the sort of unintentional elegance only she could manage. She was right - he was being stupid. They’d shared a bed plenty of times, it wasn’t anything new or weird. Hell, they’d done it almost every night since the night Bella...since Bella went.

“So, this wedding thing,” he sighed loudly as he crashed (not at all elegantly) onto the bed next to her. “We still haven’t decided on how we’re doing it.”

“We’ll just go to the courthouse,” Arya shrugged, scooting down as she tried to get comfy on the worn mattress. “Get a license signed, agree to some vows, get the certificate. Done.”

He nodded as he turned onto his side to face her, before he caught hold of what she had said. “Wait - the courthouse?”

“Well, yeah,” she answered casually, before she noticed his face. “What?”

“Nothing, I just thought you’d want to get married in the Godswood.”

She visibly sucked in a breath, turning her head to look up at an apparently super interesting spot on the ceiling. “I would, if I was getting married for real.”

“...Oh.”

She still kept her eyes on the ceiling. “It just wouldn’t feel right - making false promises in front of a Heart Tree. It would be wrong,” she whispered, biting her lip. After a pause, she turned her head to look at him again, “I know it’s dumb.”

He smiled at her, with a hint of sadness he hoped wasn’t obvious. “No, it’s not. It’s not dumb at all.”

“Plus, the Old Gods don’t take kindly to being lied to. Wouldn’t expect you to know because you’re so bloody Southern but they have real sticks up their asses about that stuff.”

“I mean, have you ever been in a Sept? I can imagine the amount of sticks up asses isn’t that different.”

They both laughed then, genuine laughter that felt more like them than any amount of wedding talk ever could. As weird and numb and indescribable the last couple of weeks had felt like, nothing felt more normal to him than just being with Arya. Just laughing with her.

“Fair point,” Arya said. “Plus we’d need someone to perform the ceremony and act as a legal witness if we did it in the Godswood. We kind of agreed we didn’t want that.” 

Gendry frowned. “Do we need a witness in the courthouse?”

“Nope,” she shook her head. “I looked it up. If we have an official registrar doing the ceremony, it’s fine.”

“So... the courthouse it is then.”

“The courthouse it is.”

* * *

Gendry wasn’t sure he’d ever really thought about his wedding day. He didn’t know if that was a thing people thought about. He’d never been in a long-term relationship, never even got close to a serious relationship. He’d never looked at a married couple and thought ‘I want that’ - maybe there was a part of him that was envious of the kids that came out of genuine happy marriages. As a teenager being ferried back and forth between different foster homes, there had been a part of him that craved a proper family. 

But that was different. Marriage didn’t mean family and family didn’t mean marriage.

The world was too fucked up a place to be that simple.

In all of this, there was one thing he was sure of. If, at any time, he had pictured his wedding day - it wasn’t wearing an old pair of trousers that barely covered his ankles, in a courthouse, about to marry his best friend who was strictly his best friend, so they could raise his orphaned niece.

He and Arya had both booked the day off work, and made an appointment to get married that morning. 

It should have felt strange. It should have felt wrong, or terrifying, or _something_. He should have felt… nervous or something. Surely this entire thing was illegal, somehow, if nothing else.

But today was the day and it didn’t feel wrong, or terrifying, or anything. He didn’t feel any sort of doubt or fear - none of the cold feet people talked about in the movies. Maybe it was because he knew this wasn’t forever, it was just a convenience thing. That was the only explanation. That was it.

He’d dropped Charlie to school as usual, picked up some breakfast sandwiches for him and Arya on the way back, and came home. Everything was normal - the only difference was that, when he got home, he changed into trousers and his fanciest white shirt to go and get married.

Still, not nervous.

The lack of nerves didn’t stop him from pacing back and forth the living room - though that could probably be mostly blamed on the copious amount of caffeine. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and sighed at the sight of the time. “And now we should have left _ten_ minutes ago.”

“Can you give it a rest? It’s my wedding day, you know,” her teasing tone came from the bedroom and he could almost see her smirking through the walls. 

There was a snarky comment of his own just on the tip of his tongue, but before he could say a word, Arya came out of the bedroom and he suddenly forgot how to speak.

She was wearing a short-sleeved golden dress that fell to just above her knee, with matching heels. Her brown hair fell loosely around her shoulders, but was pushed back out of her face with a headband made up of ivory flowers. 

She was beautiful. It almost wasn’t fair how beautiful she was - or how she’d never believe him when he told her so.

“Arya, you…” He started saying, but then she started walking towards him and he lost the ability to speak again for a few seconds. “...You look amazing.”

“You don’t scrub up so badly yourself,” She laughed, eyeing him up and down quickly before doing an exaggerated twirl. “Though, I would _so_ marry myself right now.”

“Who could blame you?” He teased, a soft smile forming across his lips.

She matched his smile with a grin of her own. “Come on, we have a very weird wedding to get to.”

* * *

For the whole duration of the car ride there, Gendry found himself waiting for the bad feeling to kick in. But it still never came, not even as they walked into the courthouse, Arya grabbing hold of his hand as they entered. 

(If anything, that gesture only made him feel even more at ease.)

They were waiting in the seating area when she stared going through her small bag.

“Now is not the time to tell me we forgot something,” He joked, watching her pull their individual identifications out of her bag. 

She rolled her eyes at him. “I have everything. As long as you have the rings, we’re good.”

“I still don’t see why we need rings in the first place.”

“Because we’ll need to wear them for the social worker _or_ if we do need to go to court,” Arya scoffed. “Besides, they’re cute... and the lady on Etsy was offering 20% off if you bought two.”

It didn’t take long to get the marriage license - fill in a form, a signature here and there, and it was done. 

They were booked in for the simplest of ceremonies with the registrar thirty minutes after their scheduled appointment with the clerk to get their license - by some odd stroke of luck, the entire timeline had worked out quite well. They had to take a seat in the waiting room for a few minutes until the registrar was available and ready to marry them.

Arya kept her hold on his hand the entire time they were waiting and he didn’t try to stop her. He wondered if she was feeling all the things he wasn’t - this was a bigger sacrifice for her, after all. She was doing this _for_ him, to help him. And he knew that was just the kind of person she was but that didn’t mean it was an easy thing to do.

He leaned over to whisper against her ear, “Are you okay?”

He felt her nod before he saw it. “Yeah, I’m good. Is that weird?”

An odd sense of relief settled over him upon hearing her say those words. “No, it’s not. I’m good too.”

Her unsure smile broke out into a wide grin. “Good.”

“There’s still time if you don’t want to do th-”

“You finish that sentence and I swear I’ll punch you in your stupid mouth,” she interrupted, quirking one eyebrow and daring him to challenge her on that. 

“I just don’t want you to regret this.”

“I won’t.”

The calm defiance written all over her features warned him to shut up, and so that was what he did. She didn’t like people telling her what she should or shouldn’t do - he’d never tried to and he didn’t think now would be a good time to start.

Maybe they should have been nervous about this, but in that exact moment as the registrar appeared and called out their surnames, he was glad that they weren’t.

_Stark-Waters._ He could definitely live with that.

They smiled at each other as they stood from their seats. They quietly followed the registrar, a smartly dressed woman in her forties, into the most intimate of the courthouse’s ceremony rooms.

As they walked in hand in hand, knowing they’d requested a basic ceremony, he knew it would only be a couple of minutes - if that - until they were officially, legally, a married couple.

They just had to verbally agree to the form they’d just signed - from what the clerk had explained, it would just be a verbalisation of the agreement plus the exchanging of rings. They just both had to say I do, put on a ring, and that would be it, the deed would be done.

Whilst there were still no nerves on Gendry’s part, as they got to the altar and he turned to Arya, he felt a brief moment of panic for her. Should he be letting her do this for him? Did that make him an awful, selfish person? Did it make him a bad friend to her?

For a split second, he considered asking her those questions. But then she grinned at him, full of confidence and hope. All he could do was pray those feelings wouldn’t turn to regret and resentment by the time this whole scheme was over. He couldn’t stand the thought of her hating him for this, and he couldn’t stomach not having her in his life because of it.

But she was looking at him with such faith in her eyes. Nobody had ever had faith in him like Arya did, believed in him like Arya did. 

Maybe he’d had acquaintances here and there over the years, but she was his only real friend. She was his best friend - they’d been best friends for so long, he couldn't imagine his life any other way. Why she put up with him, he really didn’t know, but she seemed adamant to never give up on him. Outside of Bella and Charlie, she was the closest thing to a real family he’d ever had and now they would be family legally too.

He was so lost in his own thoughts, he wasn’t sure if the registrar had actually said anything until he heard the question. 

“Do you, Gendry Waters, take Arya Stark to be your wife?” The woman asked, looking at him eagerly as she waited for the expected response.

Something in Arya changed then, just a flicker in the corner of her eye, but he saw it. She was still grinning at him, she hadn’t faltered at all, but he knew her better than that. Something in that question had stopped her heart for a second - if he knew her the way he thought he did, it was the wife part.

But she was gripping his hand so reassuringly, so lovingly, that the words out of his mouth felt completely natural. “I do.”

Next was her turn. “And do you, Arya Stark, take Gendry Waters to be your husband?” 

“I do.”

Either he was wrong and she really was completely assured about this situation, or she was an even better actress than he already knew she was. It was completely convincing, and in that moment, it felt completely right. 

The registrar turned back to Gendry. “It’s now time for the giving and receiving of rings.”

Gendry nodded, pulling the ring box out of his jacket pocket. Inside were two golden wedding bands. Arya’s was very thin and had tiny moissanites placed across the band, over an unusual design imprinted on the metal that reminded Gendry of leaves. Oddly, he could see how it was romantic enough to pass as a wedding band. Gendry’s was quite a bit thicker, making the ladies’ ring next to it look tiny in comparison, and also didn’t have as much of a design. It looked more like her _lady off Etsy_ had a lucky swing at the liquid metal with a sledgehammer and caused it to run, causing an almost mosaic effect on the band.

First, he pulled Arya’s leaf ring out of the box and she raised her hand so he could gently place it on her ring finger. He smiled at her, watching her look down at her hand, stretching her fingers as if she was trying to get used to the feeling. She looked up at him and he handed her the ring box, so she was able to take out the remaining band. He then held up his own left hand so she could slide the ring onto his finger. 

“May these rings serve as a reminder of your love for each other and the commitment you are making here today,” the registrar said confidently with a smile. “I am happy to declare that you are now husband and wife. Congratulations.”

In that second, he suddenly realised that they hadn’t talked about what they were going to do at that point where mostly people usually --

His question was answered for him before he’d even finished thinking it in his head, as Arya leaned up on her toes and placed the softest of kisses to his lips. As her hand rested gently on his cheek, where it stayed even as she pulled back from his lips a second later, Gendry instinctively moved his own hands to rest just above her waist.

They both laughed then, almost blissfully. The reality of the situation was lost on him for a moment, as he rested his forehead against hers. He leaned down and took her lips between his again, but neither of them pulled away that time. 

Still, there was a voice in the back of his head telling him that this should have felt wrong. He’d just let his best friend ruin her life (or a significant chunk of it, at the very least) and for what -- for him. He’d just married a woman when neither of them had any intention of upholding ‘til death do us part’. Most people got married thinking they would spend the rest of their lives together, raise a family, go on crazy adventures, eventually grow old in each others’ arms. He and Arya had just gotten married to look more appealing if his niece’s custody case went to court. 

It was fucked up and yet it didn’t feel wrong - it felt right, as if they were both exactly where they should have been all along.

* * *

“Who knew getting married was so easy?” Arya smirked at him as she climbed into the passenger seat of his car.

“Yeah, learn something new everyday,” Gendry mumbled, turning on the car engine.

She laughed as she fiddled with her seatbelt, before she twisted her body slightly to face him, tilting her head in a way that let him know he was going to get teased. “So, do you feel different? As a _married man_?”

“Do you feel different? As a _married woman_?”

“No,” Arya shrugged. “Stop at the grocery store, we should get some champagne.”

He laughed. “As much as you know I love day drinking with you, I’ve got to be at work in an hour to open up.”

Arya groaned, sinking into her chair. “I took the day off especially for this, but you’re working on our wedding day?"

"I just have to open up and cover until Anguy gets there," Gendry laughed. "I'll be an hour, two at most."

"You so owe me a honeymoon.”

“I owe you a lot more than a honeymoon.” 

At that moment, it felt like he owed her the entire Gods-damned world. She deserved that and a lot more, he’d long known that, but not even he could have seen her doing anything like this for him. Something suddenly felt different - likely due to the wedding bands on both their hands, if nothing else.

He kept his eyes on the road, even though he wanted to turn and get a glimpse of her face - the silence was a bit too much for him at that point, and he couldn’t tell what she was thinking, but then he heard her scoff. “You don’t owe me anything, I’m just teasing.”

“I’m not teasing, I mean it. I have no idea how I can ever repay you for all of this, Arry.”

“You don’t have to repay me for anything, stupid.”

* * *

Within a week of their wedding day, they were almost ready to move into the new house. They’d packed everything up at his apartment and everything was sorted, with his first tenants (which felt _very_ weird to say every time he said it out loud) due to move into the apartment the following week.

Packing up Bella’s place was proving to be much, much harder.

He’d managed to keep pretty much everything the same since she’d passed, for not wanting to disrupt Charlie’s surroundings any more than necessary. He’d been living there for a month, and still the wardrobe was still full of her things, exactly how she’d left them. He’d been packing himself a bag every few days and leaving his clothes in there - which wasn’t great, but was a much better option than having to clear out his sister’s things and decide what to do with them.

It wasn’t just her clothes, either - with the exception of the bigger furnishings, everything in the apartment was hers. She didn’t have much, but for some reason, that made getting rid of it all much harder. He remembered how excited she’d been to have somewhere of her own, somewhere for her and her daughter, even if it wasn’t much.

It just felt wrong that it wasn’t hers anymore.

It felt wrong that he had to decide what to keep, what to give away or sell, and what to throw out. It felt wrong to be going through his sister’s stuff - knowing she’d have killed him for it had she been there to see him.

He folded a thin blanket, placing it into a brown storage box. The door opened behind him, and he turned to see Arya.

“I’m really starting to see that stubborn streak in her, you know," Arya said with an affectionate grin.

“How’s she doing?” He asked, starting to unclip the duvet cover on the bed. “Still wants to keep everything, huh?”

Arya nodded as she moved to stand on the other side of the bed, unclipping the last couple buttons, before they both started pulling it off. “Yeah. So, I’ve been thinking.”

Gendry smirked teasingly. “Never a good sign.”

“Shut up,” she scowled at him. “I was thinking about Charlie. I think we should tell her that we’re married - or at least a couple - now.”

He frowned as he took the cover in his hands. “I thought you said…”

“I know what I said, but we’re going to tell other people so we need her to understand before other people start mentioning it to her. Plus, what if this does go to court? It seems stupid to keep it from her.”

He was quiet for a few seconds, before he nodded and went back to his folding.“Yeah.”

“What?” She asked, keeping her eyes on him as he folded the duvet cover. “What’s that look?”

He hadn’t realised he’d _made_ a look, but he stopped what he was doing and sighed. He’d given it some thought since they got married - how it would affect Charlie. It wasn’t as if they could tell her the real reason behind their marriage, so it was either don’t say anything at all or lie to her.

“It’s just…” he paused, his mouth open as his brain searched for the words. “I’m worried about it.”

Arya frowned, tilting her head to the side. “Telling her we’re married?” 

“No, telling her we’re splitting up.”

She was quiet for a few seconds. “Oh, I didn’t… I guess I never thought of that.”

“Why would you?” He shook his head softly, offering her an understanding smile. “My mum had boyfriend after boyfriend when I was growing up. Out of all of them, I think there was only ever one I thought would stick around for good. Now I can’t even remember his name and... I don’t want to do that to Charlie. Plus, I hated all of those shitheads, Charlie adores you.”

She smiled, albeit sadly. “That’s worse?”

“Yeah, I _wanted_ them to fuck off,” he shrugged. “I’m genuinely concerned my niece is going to side with you in the divorce.”

She laughed, before kneeling on the bed and leaning over to give him a shove. “Stop being so stupid.”

“But you know, we can worry about all that when we get there,” He grabbed her hand, taking it in his so he could gently stroke his thumb over her knuckles. “Have to worry about winning over the Stark dynasty first, right?”

“Right,” she laughed. “That should probably be top priority.”

“Do they all still think we’re going to be living together _just_ as friends?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“Nobody finds it suspicious that we’ll be living together with my niece in a house owned by your father?”

“Gendry, we’ve practically lived together since I started college,” she rolled her eyes as she sat down properly on the bed and started to fold Bella’s pillowcases. “I think they’re just happy to know for sure this new place has separate bedrooms - Jon still thinks you sleep on the sofa when I stay over at yours.”

“Yeah well, I think telling him we're husband and wife will put an end to that problem.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok show of hands if you're on Team Get Charlie a Pet Bunny
> 
> thanks again for reading! the response to the first chapter was super lovely and unexpected. you can catch me over on tumblr at baratheonstarks if you wish x

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! i'd love to hear your thoughts:)


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